Like the 1/48 Tamiya P-47, I consider the 1/48 Hasegawa Bf 109 (F through K) series feel good comfort kits which remind me why I love scale modeling. They are somewhat basic and certainly no match for the newer Eduard kit, but still I l have an affection for them. A few additions, like a resin pit, and they can be quite stunning. This is the second of the three kits I decided to try to build at the same time. I’ll be doing Gunther Rall’s JG 52 “Black 13” from an Aeromaster sheet I have in the stash. Rall scored 275 kills with 241 being against Russian fighters. All of his kills were while flying the Bf 109.
I have this special release of the G-2 but the molding was found to be of Hasegawa’s newer tooled G-6 kit. It came with a resin upper nose and wheels for the G-2 model. I’ll have to sort through the parts to ascertain what is appropriate for the G-2.
The Hasegawa pit is very basic. I didn’t feel like adding a resin pit. Instead I used an old Eduard PE set I had in the stash for the IP and belt. I’ll add the shoulder belt later when its fitted into the fuselage. (Note: I added the cockpit to the fuselage before I remembered the F and G models had that prominent starboard yellow fuel line. I’m gonna have to shoehorn one in later from the top.)
These truly build themselves. The flaps and rear radiator doors were glued in place as well. I like the plastic to plastic “weld” this provides. On another note, the resin "nose’ was about a quarter inche too short. I had to use the plastic one which was modified by shaving off a bump on the top. No big whoop. Think the wheels will fit?
I added a brass tube to simulate the 20mm poking out a bit.
Got a nice little assembly line going here Joe:) Another nice start. I’ve found myself falling in love with the 109 so I’ll have to look to pick up one of these Hase kits. Looking forward to seeing the paint go down!
Great start! I’ve seen a few documentaries that included Mr. Rall. He seemed to be an all around good man with many great stories! Looking forward to seeing your progress.
A really good read is Gunther Rall’s book “My Logbook”. It chronicles all of his air to air combat victories. Post WW2 Gunther Rall was the father of the modern Lufwaffe. He flew F-104s in the jet age. - Mike
I thought I updated this, but apparently I hadn’t. It got basically the same treatment as the Fw 190 with Mission paints as they were painted simultaneously. I did add the yellow ID markings as needed using Tamiya flat yellow with a touch of flat red and taped them off before the RLM 76 went down.
I used Blue Tac worms to mask off the pattern here too.
I then weathered it with dilted red brown (XF-64) and NATO (XF-69).
Looking awesome as always. Your color modulation is top notch. I did the same kit a few years back and yes they do go together nicely. Black 13 is one of my favorite versions ,looking forward to seeing the finish
Joe, Your weathering/painting/pre-shading, etc. finishing skills are the cat’s meow.
I’ve always wanted to try to do what you do with the pre-shading but I guess that A) my hand with the A/B in it is just not steady enough and, B) I don’t seem to end up with the shading showing through. I have some kits that, although I bought them thinking I might someday build them, I now am sure they’ll never be built. In many cases I’ve changed my building philosophy from “get a cheap kit to start with” to: “Get the best kit you can afford since we’re only on this delightful planet for a very short stay.” Some of the kits I know I won’t ever build may become my test beds for painting/weathering techniques. Practice, practice, practice.
